Pages

1.9.14

A BROKEN VESSEL, by Kate Ross

2/series Julian Kestrel. What a charming, enticing, seductive hero. This Regency mystery (and a bit of a romance) doesn't follow the usual stilted will-she-will-he format. Julian Kestrel, dandy about town, is notorious for his finely-tied cravat, his inimitable sense of style. But he's hiding a keen wit and a discerning eye for a good crime. When his valet (ex-pickpocket Dipper) bumps into his streetwalking sister in the notorious Haymarket, Dipper takes Sally back to Kestrel's lodgings to recover from a vicious beating from a flat (client). Kestrel shows up unexpectedly and is quite taken with the still-pretty, very vivacious and cheeky girl. Sallie collects souvenirs from her flats: handkerchiefs. She's got three, all quite different. One of them contains a letter. But from whom did she take it? The letter is a heart-rending pleas from a woman who has fallen on "hard times". And then...
It's a 5, an engaging, historically sensitive series which, sadly, we will not have any more of. Kate Ross died of cancer at a too-young age.
Find more no-spoiler reviews at www.nuts4books.com